Speech #920206699

I am reiterating a position that I made known some 5 years ago to the Soviet Embassy in Washington. to the Soviet Government in Washington. and to our own State Department. Essentially. that position is that every man and woman in an open society should have the right to move about freely. to leave a country and go to any other country that lays out the welcome mat. Our resolution defines this as "the right freely to emigrate." a right affirmed by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. yet a right that has been denied to many Jews wanting to leave their Russian homeland for the State of Israel. In response to the ancient cry. "Let my people go." the modern Pharaohs in the Kremlin have relaxed their rules to the extent of granting exit permits to a few thousand Russian Jews in the last 2 years. However. those allowed to leave were mostly the aged. the infirm and the unskilled. Few Jewish doctors. or lawyers or skilled craftsmen have been allowed to emigrate to Israel. What the Soviet Government has done. in fact. has been to throw a mere sop to critical world opinion. which demands the right of free movement for Soviet Jewry. The resolution before us.